Tom Donahue (filmmaker)

Casting By (2013) examined the work of casting directors and the lack of Academy Award recognition for casting as a distinct discipline within filmmaking. In June 2025, Vulture described the film as having helped “spur the movement for Oscar recognition” of casting directors.

Donahue's feature documentary, Thank You For Your Service, premiered at DOC NYC in November 2015. Called "gut-wrenching" and "important" by The New York Times, the film is an examination of failed mental health policy in the U.S. military. The film argues the creation of a Behavioral Health Corps is necessary to ensure accountability in the military chain of command toward mental health. Thank You For Your Service includes interviews with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, General David Petraeus, General Loree Sutton, General Peter Chiarelli, Gary Sinise, Sebastian Junger and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen. These interviews are interwoven with the experiences of four combat veterans who fought major battles while deployed in Operations Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Enduring Freedom (OEF).

In its review, The Hollywood Reporter wrote, "If this film cannot spur politicians to act, nothing will."

The Los Angeles Times review stated, "With the same clarity and fluency he brought to far sunnier material in Casting By, Donahue pinpoints the devastating intersection of personal trauma and institutional neglect in an age of perpetual war."

A CreativeChaos vmg production, the film was produced by Ilan Arboleda, Matt Tyson and Donahue in association with the Sprayregen Family Foundation and Regina K. Scully & Artemis Rising Foundation (The Invisible War, The Hunting Ground), executive-produced by Gerald Sprayregen and co-executive produced by Regina K. Scully. It won Best Documentary at the 2016 G.I. Film Festival and the Impact Award at the 2016 Illuminate Film Festival. G.I. Film Festival Co-founder Laura Law-Millett called it "one of the most powerful, impactful films I have ever seen."

In September 2018, Donahue's much anticipated feature documentary This Changes Everything premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival to critical acclaim and positive audience reception, earning it the festival's first runner-up for the Grolsch People's Choice Award for the documentary category. The film received multiple standing ovations and was only the second documentary to be shown in Toronto's iconic 2600-seat Roy Thomson Hall. Donahue both directed and produced the film (along with producers Ilan Arboleda of CreativeChaos vmg and Kerianne Flynn of New Plot Films). The film was created in association with Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, Artemis Rising Foundation, David Yurman and Lyft Entertainment. The film explores the issues surrounding gender inequality in Hollywood and has since screened in over 20 film festivals in North America and Europe.

On January 17, 2019, Deadline Hollywood announced that This Changes Everything’s theatrical, streaming and broadcast rights for North America had been acquired by Good Deed Entertainment and that the film would be released theatrically in the first half of 2019.

This Changes Everything also won the Greg Gund Memorial Standing Up Competition at the Cleveland International Film Festival In April 2019. The film had its premiere on 700+ screens via Fathom Releasing on July 22nd followed by a limited theatrical release on August 9th.

Pete Hammond from Deadline called the film “powerful and fascinating”. He writes, “Some might believe that this movie especially, considering the subject matter, should be helmed by a woman. Donahue, however, is the one who got it made and feels correctly that it is as much if not more important to open the eyes of men in this regard.”

In 2024, Donahue wrote and directed the six-part Paramount+ docuseries Mafia Spies, based on Thomas Maier’s 2019 nonfiction book. The series examines CIA collaboration with American organized crime figures in attempts to assassinate Cuban leader Fidel Castro during the Cold War. On-location segments were filmed in Havana, Cuba (with additional location work in Mexico City).

In November 2025, Variety reported that Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way, Verdi Productions, and Danny Strong Productions partnered to produce The Dream Factory of Oz, a feature documentary about the making of the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, with Donahue attached to direct. The film examines the production history and enduring cultural legacy of the MGM classic. Reenactment filming began in Rhode Island in 2025. The film is slated for release in 2026.

Break Out (TBA)

In 2025, Deadline reported that Morgan Freeman and Lori McCreary’s Revelations Entertainment joined Donahue’s animated feature documentary Break Out as executive producers. The film follows a same-sex couple seeking safety amid escalating anti-LGBTQ laws in Russia and the invasion of Ukraine, blending first-person testimony with animation and reenactments.

In 2003, Donahue produced and edited Alfredo de Villa's debut feature, Washington Heights, winner of five Best Picture awards at festivals worldwide, the Audience Award at Los Angeles Film Festival, and Special Jury Award at the Tribeca Film Festival. Washington Heights also received a Gotham Award nomination for the IFP Open Palm Award.

Donahue was co-producer on Ramin Bahrani's debut feature, Man Push Cart, which premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. He produced the feature documentary, Highway Courtesans (directed by Mystelle Brabbee), which had its world premiere at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam and its U.S. premiere at South by Southwest.

He produced the feature film Ponies, directed by Nick Sandow (Orange Is the New Black) and starring John Ventimiglia (The Sopranos) and Kevin Corrigan. It was named a New York Times Critics Pick upon its release in 2012.

Donahue produced the 13-part documentary series On the Team for Nickelodeon. He also produced the HBO feature documentary Bleed Out alongside Ilan Arboleda and Steve Burrows. The film was directed by Burrows and premiered on December 17, 2018. Paste Magazine called it “brutal, unmissable viewing.” The Los Angeles Press Club awarded the film Best Documentary and runner-up for Best Medical/Health Reporting at its annual National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Awards and SoCal Journalism Awards in July 2019.

In 2025, Donahue served as Co-Executive Producer on the Oxygen documentary special Married to El Chapo: Emma Coronel Speaks. The film features interviews with Emma Coronel Aispuro, the wife of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, and examines her account of her marriage, the Sinaloa cartel, and the legal consequences surrounding Guzmán’s arrest and conviction. The special aired on Oxygen (NBCUniversal) and streams on Peacock.

Donahue's first narrative feature as editor was Raphael Nadjari's The Shade (starring Richard Edson). The film premiered at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section. He also edited Raphael Nadjari's next two films, I am Josh Polonsky's Brother and Apartment #5C (which premiered as part of the 2002 Cannes Directors' Fortnight).

He edited the IFC Films feature documentary, Keep the River on Your Right based on the book of the same name by Tobias Schneebaum. The film won the 2001 Gotham Spirit Truer than Fiction Award & the Jury Prize at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam.

In 2005, Donahue edited IFC's Wanderlust, a feature doc/narrative directed by Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini and starring Paul Rudd and Tom McCarthy.